“All Praise You, Mother Earth, Please Forgive Us For Even Existing.”

I warned you. When all the haters spewed forth several weeks ago, I promised I’d tucked away their comments as blog fodder. They may have, for a moment, overwhelmed my page but like I have told my kids when they are misbehaving, “I will outlast you.”

They may have rapid-fire comments that pour forth from their fingertips, but I have prayer and contemplation on my side. Oh, I’ll take your comments, Haters, and let them soak in my mind for awhile and formulate lots of thoughts on them. And then…I’ll write a blog about it.

When I said a few weeks ago that children are a blessing, I didn’t expect the conversation to turn into a climate change argument. I mean, the conversation could go in a lot of ways, but the demise of the Earth wasn’t on my radar. But, leave it to the Negative Nancies of the world to turn it into a virtual screaming match about how the “end is near and we are all going to burn up.”

Let’s set a few things straight before we get started on this blog.

Number 1: I think the Earth is wonderful and I’m all in favor of being responsible caretakers. Often times, the “burning Earth” crowd sets up a false dichotomy: You either completely agree that the Earth is headed towards utter annihilation because of pollution/climate change OR you are a stupid, uneducated idiot who hopes for its destruction. There is no middle ground with these people.

Number 2: I do think that in many ways we have abused the Earth and not been good stewards of the gift that it is. I do agree that there are areas of our world that are in serious danger and need immediate help. Most rational people agree with this.

Number 3: This blog is not a discussion about whether climate change is really a thing or not. I have read both sides of the issue and I have my opinion about what I believe. I make no claims that this is an exhaustive scientific peer-reviewed academic paper. I’m not a scientist and neither are most of us. I don’t need stats and figures thrown out to me in the comments. This blog is not about climate change but more about the doomsday obsession over the Earth. It’s bizarre and downright depressing. There is almost a sick worship of the Earth which in turn has caused people to hate the human race. My goal here is to look at this as a Catholic and talk about how a Catholic should respond to this doomsday rhetoric.

Let’s begin with a few comments from the “burning Earth” crowd that were recently posted on my Facebook page.

Allanis: “Having kids has a negative effect on the planet because of how much waste comes from them.”

Lylah: “Actually, life will carry on just fine without humans. At the rate people are still having babies, soon enough there won’t be enough food or shelter for everyone.”

Amanda: “The world is literally burning, climate change means we have measurable years left with no planet B.”

Jacob: “The earth is dying and we’re living in a dystopian dumpster fire of a country.”

Melissa: “Our planet is dying and future generations will undoubtedly have to endure war over resources, famine and disease.”

Again, these were the comments that I could allow to stay. Most comments were so crude, horrendous, and purposefully offensive that I couldn’t allow them to stay on my Facebook page. But, you see here this extreme over-exaggeration about the state of our home planet. These people see themselves as the “responsible” ones for NOT having kids because all we do as humans is suck up resources and destroy. They view things in such perilous ways that for many of them, there is no hope of turning anything around. “We are doomed. Live it up while you can. May the Earth have mercy on your non-existent soul when you burn up in a fiery tsunami of destruction.”

There was no reasoning with them. If I tried to explain that things aren’t quite as bleak as they are making them out to be, I was ruthlessly attacked for being an idiotic non-scientific Christian.

So, what is the Catholic response to all this? Balance. Balance and good stewardship. There is one camp that ignores all environmental warnings and laughs everything off as absolute nonsense. Then there is the other side which sees only the Earth, plants, and animals as good; humans are nothing but a scourge upon the Earth. They believe the Earth is “literally burning” and we are passed the point of being able to do anything about it. Game over.

With either one of these sides, there can be no fruitful discussion. When I tried to tell the lady that thinks the Earth is “literally burning” that it would be more beneficial for her to use realistic and factual language, she became enraged. I tried to tell her that I could actually agree with her that there are parts of the world that are in danger and in threat of ruin, but it’s important to use language that speaks actual truth when talking about these hot button issues. She heard none of it.

I spoke in my blog “Let’s Just Hate All the Good Things, Shall We?” about the depressing and dangerous view that some younger people are taking, which is that humans are the absolute worst. All that matters is the environment–Earth good, humans bad. There’s serious cult worship of the environment and a move to degrade anything associated with humans. Many of these worshippers would be happy to see the human race just disappear. Consequently, many of them don’t want children. This, sadly, is a product of self-loathing and a loss of purpose in people’s lives. They believe the environment is just an innocent bystander that has been bullied by resource-sucking humans.

(As a side note, I went and looked at many of these people’s profiles. As a sociologist, I’m very curious about people. I had a hunch about where they were living and I wanted to see if I was on target. Turns out, each one that I looked up lived in a big city somewhere in the world. One wonders if they are getting out in nature and seeing the beauty of it?)

Here’s my take. Have we abused the Earth? In many ways, yes. Did we sometimes do it in ignorance? Sometimes, yes, and sometimes, no. I cannot deny that greed has and still does play a major role in pollution and reckless use of Earth’s resources. Materialism, also, plays a role. The constant buying of worthless and pointless material items only to toss them away in a few years is completely wasteful. Fad toys and fad clothing are a big reason why China pumps so many carbon emissions and pollutants in the air. We don’t have to buy this stuff. We CAN be more selective, choosey, and thoughtful about our purchases.

With all this said, I do believe that humans have a great capacity to fix a lot of these problems. God gave us great minds for a reason. Most of us realize the environmental mistakes of the past and are eager to find solutions. Humans are finding all kinds of ways to recycle nearly everything. We are becoming more creative and innovative with growing food. People are concerned about clean water and saving the rainforests. Efficient clean energy, I believe, is in the future. Living a more minimalistic lifestyle is becoming more appealing. These are all good things.

I travel a lot and when I look around at the places I travel, I mostly see a beautiful Earth with so much to enjoy. I don’t see this dystopian hellscape that the doomsday commenters were talking about. Do I recognize that there are issues and concerns? Sure. I’ve seen the smog hanging over LA and it’s not good.

Catholic Pilgrims, we know that God gave us this wonderful blue life-sustaining orb as our home. We are to take care of it and be grateful for all its gifts. We know that we are to be responsible and use resources wisely. When we see waste, neglect, abuse or rampant greed, it is our job to speak up and advocate for the environment. We are called to live our lives in such a way that shows we care about the Earth and all its many blessings. We are to use our minds to solve hard problems and to be honest about the state of things. It is dangerous and irresponsible to hype things up to gain power over people and scare them.

Despair and hopelessness don’t do anybody any good. Even if the world were to burn up into ashes tomorrow, we still should live today as if tomorrow will come with the hopeful opportunity to make the world a little better and get a little better ourselves.

So, get out in God’s Creation, Catholic Pilgrims and let the beauty of it all inspire you to be a good steward.